. >>> joining me is rachel smoke from politico there. zachary carabel and democratic strategist david goodfriend. only gentleman here not wearing a tie for some reason. no tamron, no tie. >> i'm in new york city with you guys today and i'm going tieless in honor of it. i think it's the only way to go. >> pick it up with rachel. we'll start with you. this exchange between senator reid and speaker boehner, when's the inside baseball here? is this more about establishing who could very well get the blame if all of this continues to go south? >> that's right. happy new years, america. we appear poised to dive off the fiscal cliff starting with a round of finger pointing today. this is classic gridlocked washington. why america is fed up with the lawmakers and all about pointing fingers, gaining the upper hand here. and also, gaming this out because if we do dive off the cliff an we don't get a deal in the next couple of days, which looks increasingly like where we're headed then we come back in january and have to negotiate again and a polit